our basement is flooded in 5 inches of water.what kind of health issues will this cause?
Posted by Dolores
debra 54 asked:
2 days ago our basement was flooded in about 8 to 10 inches of water..i remove about 3 inches with a bucket and pan..the landlord looked at it.. locked it left town…there is personel items of his familys stored down there ..what kind of health issues can this cause..the floor is cement so i dont know if it will evaporate..thanks not sure what catetory to put this in
ELISE
2 days ago our basement was flooded in about 8 to 10 inches of water..i remove about 3 inches with a bucket and pan..the landlord looked at it.. locked it left town…there is personel items of his familys stored down there ..what kind of health issues can this cause..the floor is cement so i dont know if it will evaporate..thanks not sure what catetory to put this in
ELISE
February 26th, 2009 at 11:35 am
molds then lead to death if get into lungs
February 28th, 2009 at 2:47 am
WAHOOOOOOOOO FREE SWIMMING POOL.
February 28th, 2009 at 5:16 pm
with that water level you can easily spread malaria or dengue
so be careful…..
March 2nd, 2009 at 5:31 am
mold which can cause various diseases so if i were you i would look for a different place to live or take care of the water down there FOOL.
mostquitos also lay eggs on water so you’ll have a higher chance of contracting mosquito contacted diseases too FOOL
March 4th, 2009 at 4:21 pm
health issues would be that there would be a lot of mold down there so if anyone in your family is allegic to mold, it could cause problems
March 5th, 2009 at 2:35 am
pump it out..,it not good it stay’s there..,prolly it will disappear after time,but its not so good for the cement,and prolly for the stone walls either..,health i dunno,i guess water that does not move,with probably some goods flooting in it,gonna smell after a while,and mayby even start to develop some fungus..,or some bacteria.
March 5th, 2009 at 2:21 pm
Many questions.
What caused the flood? Nature? Broken pipe? What kind of water?
I’d call the city health/ building inspector and ask them about it. It’s not worth jeopardizing your family’s health over a problem the landlord chose to ignore or put off indefinitely. I’ll bet he wants his rent on time.
March 5th, 2009 at 5:09 pm
IF YOU CAN’T GET A WATER PUMP DOWN THERE AND GET THE WATER OUT IT WILL TAKE FOREVER TO DRY OUT IF IT’S THAT DEEP. AND THE MOLD WILL BE JUST THE BEGINNING OF YOUR PROBLEMS. THE SMELL WILL BE REAL NICE, TOO. BUILD A FIRE UNDER THAT LANDLORD’S A S S AND MAKE HIM FIX IT YESTERDAY! I **** THAT FOR YOU. YOU SHOULDN’T HAVE TO LIVE LIKE THAT! PERSONALLY I THINK MOVING WOULD BE THE NEXT BEST STEP. HE SOUNDS LIKE A LOSER TO DO THAT TO YOU.
March 9th, 2009 at 3:34 am
Various mold spores which would be encouraged by the dampness can pose a serious, and even life-threatening health risk! You can buy little test kits from Home Depot (or other such stores) fairly inexpensively. There can be electrocution risks, but assuming that you don’t break into the locked basement, that shouldn’t be a problem…but maybe also electrical fire?
March 9th, 2009 at 4:25 am
You got five inches of water in your basement and you’re on here asking what to do? Well, here goes. most likely your basement has a drain in it, at least it should. So the water will start to recede. But what caused the flooding, a broken pipe? Listen, most towns have an infrastructure, you know, police, fire department, public utilities, electrical department. Why not get off of the computer and call someone. Start with the police and work your way to the department of public health. In the mean time, go to Walmart and get a container of HTH, the pool chlorine. Go down and dowse the standing water with about half the container full. It will disinfect everything and destroy anything in there like the stuff your landlord left behind, Good luck.
March 9th, 2009 at 7:56 am
Is this water from rain? flooding of a river? backed up drain?
From rain you just need to get it drained as soon as possible and get a dehumidifier to get the moisture out of the air. Remove all damaged drywall and insulation from the house.
River water can be more hazardous because it can carry all kinds of bacteria including E.coli (you can test for this, see below). Remediation techniques are basically the same as above but you may want to have someone who specializes in this type of work help you because the person performing the work will need to wear special personal protection equipment.
Backed up sewers are the worst and this amount of flooding can come from a sewer that has been flooded from too much rain getting into a clogged sewer. Again E. coli can be a problem as well as hepatitis.
The last two can be worse than any future mold problems because they are an immediate health risk and can make you sick while you are trying to clean up the mess. See the information in the EPA flood clean up pdf file (see second link).
Hope you have flood insurance.
BTW cement is a powder that is one of the primary ingredients used to make concrete. Assuming you are talking about a concrete floor the water will never “soak” through it. Get a pump and a dehumidifier.
March 12th, 2009 at 3:39 am
this will cause dampness and mould throughout the house and is very bad for your health.
The water will take a long time to evaporate with out some form of heating
March 15th, 2009 at 2:45 am
His insurance will take care of this problem. They will contact a specialty company that deals with flooding like this. If he doesn’t have insurance, then go buy a small submersible sump pump to get rid of the water. Then a shop vac to **** up the rest, and finally big fans to dry it.
If not done soon, there could be some health problems with the developement of mold.